Tag Archives: LED

Given our proclivity for leaving things to the last minute we were having a brainstorm in the pub on Tuesday for UPfest ideas when we somehow alighted on the idea of pirates as the infamous Blackbeard was allegedly from Bristol. It was a good start but we needed more. We then moved on to Bluebeard (not actually a pirate but an aristocratic murderer from a French fairy tale), then to Redbeard (a pirate plying his trade in the Mediterranean) and finally Greenbeard.

As it turns out there was no such pirate as Greenbeard but we did find out about ‘The Green-beard Effect‘. Which, to paraphrase something that sounds quite complicated when you read up on it, is that people like other people who share observable physical traits like blue eyes or, as in the name of the effect, a hypothetical green beard. With that as a vague plan we then came up with the idea of adding some actual greenery to give him a true green beard and an idea was born. A quick word with our trusty gardener friend John to secure some foliage later and the whole thing was a go!

Panorama shot of our side of the yard at UPfest 2015.

The original design which I’m only showing for completion’s sake as we didn’t have enough space to get the lettering in.

Cue some feverish design, the standard bickering over the final design and then some swift preparation and hey presto! We’re ready for another road trip. After a good night’s sleep (thanks to Jo & Al for putting us up!) we were down the Tobacco Factory fed, watered and ready to go by 10.30am. It was all going smoothly. Too smoothly. Something had to go wrong. And sure enough we had 10ft less space than we were expecting. Hmmm… What to do? We eventually decided on ditching the ‘Sexual Altruism’ lettering as it was too big. That was a shame but needs must and we went with just the two heads staring at each other to maximise the space to apply the green beard to. After the rain on Friday and the rain on Sunday it turned out that Saturday was a bastion of sunshine and we even have the cheap trucker tans to prove it.

As we were painting a few people asked if it was white Obama that we were painting. Not only would that be a strange concept to begin with he doesn’t have a beard and id-iom doesn’t really do political. Perhaps we should think again. Once we’d just about finished we whacked some LED’s in the eyes and some reflective paint as their laser like stare. I’d love to see if anyone manages to get a decent night shot…

As ever UPfest was a great day out and it’s always nice to put names to faces and chat to all and sundry. Thanks to the UPfest team for having us and Jake in particular for dealing with our whinging.

On Saturday it was that time of year again to once more make our way to the East end to paint at the Whitecross Street Party. We’ve done it a few times before so jumped at the chance to get the paints out again in central London. For ‘Amo, Amas, Amat’ we have a rather androgynous couple sharing a kiss but to make things a little more tricky for ourselves we thought we’d try something a little different and use pound shop polyfilla to try and add some texture to the faces. So with just a single tiny pallette knife with which to apply the filler and beer to keep it moist we set to work. Thankfully it was nice and sunny so the filler dried pretty quickly whilst we were busy chatting then it was time to re-apply the stencil, apply some shading then add some LED’s to give the eyes a little night time sparkle. As usual it was a great day out and the boards will be now mounted on walls around the area in the coming days so keep your eyes peeled…

Well? What does the fox say? According to the viral hit song by Ylvis they make all kinds of nonsensical sounds and I don’t think that’s entirely fair. Take this fox for instance. He’s living in central London with his girlfriend, has a decent job, is erudite and urbane in all he does and actually has a pretty broad lexicon. He has no trouble expressing his thoughts clearly and with good diction. He can even do a pretty convincing Jamaican accent when he has to. Admittedly though here you’ve caught him just about to indulge in one of his favourite pastimes which is, perhaps, not quite so respectable. When darkness falls there’s nothing he likes to do more than ‘skipping’ or, as the Americans like to call it, ‘dumpster diving’. He’ll tear your bin bags to pieces just for the fun of it. And then perhaps compose a short poem about it afterwards. As is the life of the fox…

Anyway, the fox is a first attempt at doing my own cutouts using a jigsaw and I’m pleased to say I still have all my fingers. He’s been cut out of some MDF and comes complete with glowing LED eyes that just make him look badass come dusk. Until tragedy strikes cutouts are my new favourite thing…

We arrived at WXSP on Sunday at about 12.45 which given the state both of us were in was quite a feat. We’d been djing at a friend’s wedding the previous evening and were a little the worse for wear. It was also hot and we had zero ideas in the way of a plan for the day. But sometimes we work better that way.

After agreeing between us that there was to be no conscious plan we attacked the boards with all the gusto we could muster. A couple of afternoon beers helped the whole process along and before you know it we’d just about managed to knock the whole thing into some kind of shape. As we were thinking about calling it a day Artista showed up just in time for us to give her a pen or two and ask her kindly to draw a piece of toast on it. With the addition of some LED eye’s we were pretty much all done just as they started to clean up and then dismantle the boards. Ah well, they were never going to last forever. Until next time…

There’s something going on at Camden Market. Slowly all the huts that make up a lot of the shops are being given a graffiti makeover and we managed to wangle ourselves an invite. Being the gritty street artists that we undoubtedly are we decided to go for something dark and urban.

Only joking. The title of this piece translates as ‘Love conquers all’ and is written above the door in Latin. Combined with the multitude of hearts surrounding this ladies’ face it would seem that she’s got nothing to worry about. Apart from the fact she seems to be eating a padlock. I’m not really sure about that. We added a little quote to the entry step ‘Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.’ It is Camden after all. Then, we added some LED eyes and, hey presto, you’ve got the finished piece. I’m not sure how long the LED’s will last but at least she should hopefully remain in place for some time to come. Thanks to Monoprixx for the daytime shots and the Real Art of Street Art for having us over to paint.

A while ago we got in touch with Sr. X and asked if he’d be interested in doing a collaboration with us. We’d always liked his style and thought we may well be able to have some fun with a bit of street work. After knocking a few ideas round between us we settled on the idea of a stare off using the same image of a rather angry man as our starting point and seeing where we’d end up each doing it in our own style. So, with a somewhat unnatural day of sunshine promised for Sunday we packed up the id-iomobile and set off for the East End with hope in our hearts.

We’d had to guesstimate the size of the gates based on a photo but it turns out that we’d got the measurement just about spot on. So far, so good. Once we’d made the requisite amount of mess for his face it was just a matter or adding the stencil again and getting some shading in there. Meanwhile, Sr. X was adding his signature paint splashes that give a certain motion to the whole thing. At this point I remembered the LED’s we’d brought along so it was decided to have some laser eyes that would hopefully give the whole piece a bit of a lift when darkness fell. I’m not entirely sure how long they last but I’m hoping maybe a week or so (if they haven’t been stolen or removed by that time). I’m not sure who’s going to win the stare off but all the loser has got to look forward to is some permanent retinal damage…

So it was the time of year for us to strap on our snowboards and go find some big air. I’m only joking as that would undoubtedly end up in a tangled mess of broken limbs.

Instead we opted to pack our art fag, oversize cardboard glasses and some paint and then head to Battersea to find ourselves a little spot to paint in. Thankfully the weather was lovely so we cracked on and had pretty much all the painting done by the end of day one.

With day two having just as good weather it was pretty much plain sailing as all we had to do was install our sunglasses, cardboard hand and id-iom brand art fag (complete with glowing red LED tip) to finish up our first attempt at 3D graffiti. We even managed to fulfil the suggestion to have some ash under the cigarette when we found a sandbag to borrow some makeshift ‘ash’ from. A little grey paint later and ‘hey presto!’ you’ve got yourself some wind-proof ash (cheers for that suggestion Dan!) Once we were all done we then turned our attention to the serious business of having a drink and watching the Streets. All in all a pretty good weekend…